||Pa*tel"la (?), n.; pl. Patellæ (#). [L., a small pan, the kneepan, dim. of patina, patena, a pan, dish.] 1. A small dish, pan, or vase.

2. (Anat.) The kneepan; the cap of the knee.

3. (Zoöl.) A genus of marine gastropods, including many species of limpets. The shell has the form of a flattened cone. The common European limpet (Patella vulgata) is largely used for food.

4. (Bot.) A kind of apothecium in lichens, which is orbicular, flat, and sessile, and has a special rim not a part of the thallus.

• The sesamoid bone of the knee; the kneecap.
  
  Latin
• A shallow pan.
       Quotations
       *1882: The 'patella' of the accounts is probably a shallow pan. — James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Volume 4, p. 617.